US job growth cools in November, monthly wage gains modest

The figures, released Friday by the Labor Department, point to an economy that is still adding jobs at a steady rate after almost 10 years of recovery.

Hiring in November was led by health care firms, which added 40,100 jobs, and professional services such as accounting and engineering, which gained 32,000 positions.

November's job gains are down from October's robust 237,000, but the unemployment rate remained 3.7 percent for the third straight month, almost a five-decade low.

USA companies likely maintained a solid pace of hiring in November while increasing wages for workers, suggesting the economy remains strong enough for the Federal Reserve to continue raising interest rates in 2019.

It's jobs day! The U.S. economy created 155,000 jobs in November.

House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Texas) said "this is a solid report as we head into the holiday season, highlighting a year of growth for our country". But Friday's report suggests the Fed may not hike rates next year as rapidly as many investors have feared.

Most analysts do expect economic growth to decelerate next year.

Some economists said October's robust job growth in part reflected a payback from a softer September, when Hurricane Florence may have delayed some hiring.

The question is how the Federal Reserve will digest the employment report in advance of its December meeting.

The markets have been rattled by U.S.

Shepherdson also said Friday's report showed little sign that weaker job growth was due to Trump's trade war as employment rose in the trade-sensitive manufacturing sector.

The leisure and hospitality unemployment rate for the month remained slightly higher than the national average at 5.3 percent, or 729,000 people unemployed.

In addition to the almost 50-year low for the unemployment rate overall in the BLS household survey, the unemployment rate also reached a historic low for African Americans-falling by 0.3 percentage point (p.p.) in November to match a series low of 5.9 percent (last achieved in May 2018). The economy is producing so many jobs that the unemployment rate remains at historically low levels, despite the jobless claims number.

US employers added 155,000 jobs in November, missing Wall Street's expectations for an increase of 200,000 jobs, after an already rocky week for stocks exacerbated on Thursday by investor fears that a U.S-China trade deal could be reneged amid newly inflamed tensions. Average hourly earnings for Americans are now at $27.35 an hour.

Hiring has averaged 195,000 a month for the past six months, modestly below an average of 212,000 in the previous six. Central-bank officials are widely expected to raise rates again later this month and are thinking about adopting a slower wait-and-see approach in the new year, according to The Wall Street Journal. An early Thanksgiving is expected to have boosted retail employment while transportation and warehousing payrolls probably rose, driven by seasonal hiring.

But an unusually cold November slowed hiring at construction sites, with payrolls increasing by only 5,000 jobs after surging 24,000 in October. A weakening housing market, held back by higher mortgage rates, contributed to that decline. "We think the Fed will go twice next year".